As it happened the 8 members who turned out are all heading to Loch Fyne in a few weeks and felt the need to get in a decent wall dive or two. One or two were also testing new gear or recently serviced regs. The afternoon was lovely, so it was a bit of a surprise to find the water appearing just a little murky. This was confirmed by the first pair with viz. no more than a couple of metres. It did get better below about 12-15 metres but of course as a consequence it was very dark and gloomy. One or two didn’t enjoy the conditions at all but put it down to being rusty and all resolved to get in a few more dives before Scotland. The new gear was generally found to be serviceable but one set of the newly serviced regs free flowed at 30 metres which caused that dive to be speedily aborted. Brian is getting the short straw as regards short dives as he has been buddied up with the offending regs on his last two dives. All in all a good outing. By the way , the best track in at present is from the Talysarn end.
David.
Thankfully the weather had calmed down dramatically and Sunday turned out to be a dry sunny day – ideal for boat cleaning! An early start at Castellmarch and thankfully Wyn and Irfon had remembered to turn the clocks forward. Wyn expertly manoeuvred the tele handler and in a jiffy had the rib on the grass so that we could then paint the trailer – which turned out to be a good thing as peoples aim with a paintbrush and red oxide did tend to wander off the trailer occasionally!
Carl turned up armed with his grinder at the ready – and Anja rearing to be let loose on the power tools, David Jones, Hugh and then out of the blue the new Boat Officer turned up and work got underway. Hugh tackled the GPS/ DSC connections – but unfortunately being colour-blind had to depend on others for deciphering the wires – just hope we never have to rely on him to diffuse any bombs! Peter having the tools for the job attacked the lightboard and wiring. Irfon tackled the repairing of the seat and cofferdam; Anja tacked the first aid box and tool kit ensuring all present and correct. The rest of us set too on the trailer. In a shower of sparks, flying rust and the deafening sound of hammering and grinding I think we managed to clear most of the visitors from the campsite! More helpers then turned up in the form of Lee and Lois and in no time at all the entire job was done. Everyone then departed for the ’Quarry’ and we now await Ben to service the engine before the Easter break.
Many thanks for everyone’s efforts to help with a hard working but speedy session – most of all to Wyn and Helen for providing a site to work on, telehandler to lift on and off and of course half time tea and biscuits! The old and the new boat officer took the rib back to Pendre where an official boat handover took place so that’s me now officially retired. Thank you all.
Robin (ex) Boat Officer 2006 – 2009 retired – yet not deceased but still making it happen !!.
Well doesn’t a year go by quickly. Twenty four of us came together to elect officers and committee members to represent us for the coming year. The reports were duly delivered with some over running their time allocation, and the following were elected: President: Chris Green, Chairman: Carl Borum, Diving Officer: David W Jones, Treasurer: Vi Duke, Membership Secretary: Mike Duke, Boat Officer: Peter James, Equipment Officer: Brian Murchie, Press/Grants Officer: Dewi Jones, Social Secretary: Anja Grunert, Minutes Secretary: Lee Calderwood. Irfon Jones has accepted the position of Training Officer.
The AGM over within the allotted hour it was time to take on board food and drink. The food had been prepared, lovingly, by Vi, Anja and Carol, the drinks we got from the bar. Then the power shifted from the chairman to Quiz Master Calderwood who still, suffering from a heavy cold, gallantly gave us another of his memorable multi-part quizes, with something for everybody. This quiz was played with a straight bat, a fact which caught a lot of us QI (TV programme) watchers out, as we studiously avoided the obvious. “What does the word Corgi mean?”, had Malcolm very excited for as long as it took get him to understand that it was the dog which was being referred to (this did take some time). Naming the original Manchester United colours had even their most ardent fans amongst us (even our aristocrat) scratching their heads. Robin didn’t take it very well when Aberdaron was named as the most westerly village on Pen Llyn and not Uwchmynydd, (his birthplace apparently!).
Papers were swapped for marking and as the answers were given. Teams who had been leaving rather a lot of gaps on their answer sheet were finally rewarded. Full marks for leaving a gap on question 4 (there wasn’t a question 4, and on question 41 (there was nothing showing at the Town Hall cinema in Pwllheli that night). Sheer uninhibited delight from all except Anja, who didn’t think it was right to get marks for not putting anything down. The results were as follows: Team: Craig, Eleri, Carys, Simon, Hugh, 27 points. Team: David H, Sue, Brian, Llyr, Jon, 27 points. Team: Carl, Anja, Vi, John, Isabelle, 31 points, Team: David J, Robin, Lois, Rhian, Wyn, 35points. The winners: Dewi, Irfon, Mickey, Malcolm, with 37 points. A good time was had by all. Many thanks to Lee for a rollocking good quiz, and to Vi, Anja and Carol for preparing the food.
Hugh.
The third of the Skill Development Courses which are being organized jointly with the Gwynedd and Rhosneigr clubs was held in Menai Bridge on Sunday 22 March. This was the Practical Rescue Management (PRM) course which essentially covers a section of the Dive Leader course. Carl, Anja and Brian joined 6 members of the Gwynedd Club for a morning of theory lessons in the Ocean Sciences’ Building followed by several hours of re-enacting various rescue scenarios both from the shore of the Straits and from deeper water using the Gwynedd’s aptly named Red Dwarf RIB, which Paul Wood made the cardinal sin of bringing along without a radio aerial. At least that is how it must have felt after 3 hours of intensive ribbing. As usual it was the Instructors who had to do all of the hard work, acting as the divers in distress, while the students twiddled their thumbs in the dry while working out how they might perform a rescue. One extemely useful method of rolling a casualty sideways into the boat using a length of rope, parbuckling I think it’s called, was however performed very effectively, which is more than can be said about the rope throwing efforts! Despite each student being required to act as Rescue Manager once and as a rescuer for three other scenarios Brian managed to perform the amazing feat of not getting himself wet, i.e. he managed on each occasion to be assigned as the rescuer who radioed for help or prepared the O2 kit while his fellow rescuers were knackering themselves towing casualties around or hauling them ashore or into the RIB. When queried about how he achieved this, there was a sly grin and something about keeping a low profile!
As a consequence of attending all 3 SDC’s, these three have now completed 10 of the 12 DL theory lessons and one of the practicals. They should therefore complete the remaining 2 theory lessons and take the DL exam while it is all reasonably fresh. Carl and Anja can then look to qualify by completing the certification dives and a few more experience dives, while Brian will have to log many more experience dives, i.e. like it or not he is going to have to get wet quite a lot.
There is a Boat Handling Course planned for the weekend of 25/26 April and a Chartwork & Position Fixing Course set for the weekend of 9/10 May.
David J.
We have recently welcomed four new members to our club: Gwynfor Dafydd (Sports diver) Bethesda, Kate Wilkinson (Ocean diver) Harlech, Emma Broad (Ocean diver) Whitchurch and Andrew Pullan (Ocean diver) Abersoch. The first three found out about us as a result of the article that Dewi wrote for the Herald. Andrew (Andy) was introduced to us by Malcolm and was signed up immediately! We hope they enjoy their diving with us. They will soon learn that we like doing it deeper and slower, and that one of us likes doing it in seaweed in a wet suit.
Another training opportunity taken by Robin, Irfon and Lee. Our willing victims turned out again to give our trainee instructors some valuable real-time experiences. So many thanks to Rhian, Simon, Brian, and David H for being so trusting. Emma and Kate, two new members, turned up and were dragged in to enable Lee to get some practice too. This was because of the absence of Anna who was unwell. Next week will the be last pool night but there will not be any further training events organised.
Because of the lack of new trainees our assistant instructors have not been getting any practice. Working on the basis that if you don’t use it you loose it, a training session was organised. We had three assistant instructors; Irfon, Robin and Lee and we had four volunteer victims (trainees) Rhian, Simon, Brian, and David H doing OS2, and Anna who did actually need some dive skills revision. Briefing started at 7:45pm promptly next to the squash courts and then it was down to the pool for the practical. All seemed to go very well and the exercise felt to be worthwhile. Many thanks to the victims, some of whom suffered for their sport. After all that hard work it was down to the Vic for some hydration therapy and for those who stayed just a little bit longer – two baskets piled high with sausage and chips – yummy! And so few of us to eat them; we forced ourselves naturally. Next week the training will be OS3
